Learning as I age

Mercy- #JusJoJan- January 15- Pass it forward.

One of the Beatitudes- part of the Sermon on the Mount. One that is very difficult to follow. I mean the first part is- being merciful. The second part is easy- obtaining or receiving Mercy, which is what all of us would love to have, all the time. Life would be so much easier than usual, if we could just continue getting one mercy after another. I think of Mercy as a gift. Maybe I am wrong. Something like Santa Claus and what he supposedly does for people. There is really no need for anyone to be merciful and give gifts to another person but some generous and large-hearted people do and that is mercy.

I am going on a trip to Singapore, the last few days of January and the first few days of February. I have no leave left. The year has just started and I have no accumulated leave. It has to accrue over the next year for me to have some residual days to take off on un-official trips such as these. I applied for leave to Cyn, my supervisor. I needed 4 working days’ off. As I worked over the Christmas break, I could claim one day of compensatory leave off but 3 days’ would need to come from the loss of pay days’, meaning I would lose pay for 3 days and that is not good. What’s done has to be done.

I applied for leave for 3 days. Cyn looked through the request and said, ” How many days did you work over the Christmas break ?” I said, ” About 8 hours” ( 8 hours counts as one working day in our system). She said, ” Are you sure its not two days’ “?

I said, ” No”. Cyn said, ” I hate for you to take ” leave without pay”. I said, ” Its ok, whats to be done, has to be done.”Cyn said, ” Do you have sick days left?”I said, ” Yes, two days'”. ” And you will get one vacation day off on February 1 “, she said. I said,” Yes”.

Quickly coming to a decision, she said, ” Do one thing. Don’t apply for leave now in advance. Apply after you have come back from your travel, by which time it will be February and you will have enough leave to cover your absence.” Cyn continued, ” It is not breaking any rules- only emergency leaves of absence need to have advance leave requests”.

So now I am waiting for my trip to Singapore, no leave requested for and waiting for February, when I can apply for leave, I would already have taken in January and some part of February.

Cyn didn’t have to do this for me- I didn’t ask her for a favor and she doesn’t have to – at all but she did it and all without my asking. That is mercy. Giving without expecting anything in return. It makes the recipient all warm and cosy inside as though someone is watching over her and it is true. Someone is watching over me- over all of us.

Now I need to watch out for opportunities to be merciful and to pass it forward.